May 2016 - There weren't very many rich Romans. Most people
were poor. But some rich Romans were REALLY rich and they liked to show
it by having a lot of slave cooks
make them very very fancy dinners, and then inviting a lot of their
friends over to eat with them in fancy
dining rooms. They tried to serve food that was unusual
or very expensive or very difficult to make. In fact, these things were
more important to rich Romans than food that tasted good!

We know about rich Romans eating whole plates of peacock
tongues, for instance. One complicated meal involved stuffing a chicken inside a duck, then the duck inside a goose, then the goose inside a
pig, then the pig inside a cow,
and cooking the whole thing together. Sometimes rich Romans sent slaves
running up into the mountains near
Rome to get snow, so they could have slushies even though there
were no refrigerators!

Rich Romans liked to use expensive spices that traders
brought from thousands of miles away. Cinnamon,
pepper, nutmeg and cloves came all the way from India.

We know some of the recipes rich Romans liked from
a Roman cookbook written by a man named Apicius in the time of the Roman
Empire (we aren't sure exactly when). Apicius's cookbook still
survives today, and you can find some of his recipes online.

A warning though: Most modern Americans don't like these recipes very
much. Romans liked to make spicy sweet things, which Americans don't
usually eat.

Bibliography and further reading about Roman food:

The
Classical Cookbook, by Andrew Dalby (1996). Both rich and poor
people's recipes, with a lot of context too.

A
Taste of Ancient Rome, by Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa (reprinted 1994).
Recipes from Apicius, including the weird ones.